Deliver Us From Evil: Movie Review

Deliver Us from Evil: Movie Review






Synopsis:

New York police officer Ralph Sarchie (played by Eric Bana: Lone Survivor, Hanna, Munich) and his partner, Butler (played by Joel McHale: The Soup (TV), Community (TV)) investigate a series of seemingly unrelated crimes that they soon realize are all connected because of one man who happened to know one of the murdered victims and the wife of another. They get mixed up in the supernatural and possession and have to align with a priest (played by Edgar Ramirez: Vantage Point, The Bourne Ultimatum).  







What I Liked:

It’s creepy. While I didn’t find it all that scary, I’m harder to scare since I’ve seen so many movies. When I say a movie is scary, it’s most likely either one of the scariest movies of all time, or it’s scary to me (because people have different and personal things they might be afraid of that no one else is). So, when I say a movie is creepy, most likely people will either be very scared by it or at least creeped out. Because creepy can be a different type of scary.

I liked the characters, especially Eric Bana and Joel McHale. I think they worked well with each other and I think they had good chemistry as far as police partners go. This movie can be considered a mixture of a horror/possession movie and a crime drama. For crime dramas with partners, the chemistry between partners is one of the crucial elements.

I liked there was a slightly different view on possessions. Sure, there is still the basic stuff, but there a few things more added to it, making it for more realistic and a little fresher. For instance, the priest explains how a demon will try to disrupt an exorcism in stages and while most of these stages we’ve seen before, I find it film and characters realize that and state it as fact. One of them deals with the demon’s ability to see misfortunes of people’s pasts (their inner demons, if you will) and finding a way to exploit it. You see Eric Bana’s character struggling from something in his past and literally haunting him in increments throughout the film. I think this is what many horror films are lacking and helps develop the character more into an external and internal conflict.

There are Doors songs throughout the film and I think it’s quite sweet.





What I didn’t Like:

Although I do like the movie and there are a few new elements in the film that other horror movies don’t have, I do realize that many of the plot points of the film are overused in both horror possession films and crime dramas. So, the plot is quite predictable. I guessed what sort of things might happen and about 90% of the things I predicted would happen did end up happening. I knew almost right away (without reading any spoilers) that a certain character would die (I’m not telling who) and I knew the film would have to perform one big exorcism at the end (but that’s a given). I forgive it a bit, because it is “based on a true story” and because I’m just a big fan of horror movies.

Other than that, I’m pretty much fine with the movie.






Rating:

3 and a ½ stars out of 5

I do like the film, but I still believe it could have been better and scarier and maybe if it was a little less predictable and had more fresh ideas, I could have easily given it 4 stars.